European Union Sues IBM Over Disastourous EES Rollout

eu-LISA, the agency responsible for managing the EU’s IT infrastructure, has launched a lawsuit against tech giant IBM, French IT provider Atos, and Italian defense contractor Leonardo. The civil suit follows years of repeated delays, rising budgets, and friction over contract deadlines for Europe’s long-awaited Entry/Exit System (EES).

The roots of the lawsuit go back to 2019, when eu-LISA awarded the contract to the IBM-led consortium. Over the subsequent five years, the project’s price tag ballooned, deadlines were missed repeatedly, and the agency hit the tech partners with financial penalties. The contractors pushed back, citing external factors like COVID-19 pandemic disruptions and unrealistic revised milestones.

The lawsuit will not impact the current use of the EES, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the news.

What is the EES?

The Entry/Exit System is an automated biometric platform designed to replace manual passport stamping for non-EU visitors-including travelers from the U.S., Canada, and the UK-entering the 29-country Schengen area.

Under the system, visitors must register their fingerprints, submit a facial scan, and record their passport details upon arrival. The data is stored digitally for up to three years to streamline repeat visits, track visa overstayers (enforcing the strict 90-day-in-180-day rule), and curb identity fraud.

Maybe more important, the EES is the precursor to ETIAS (the European Travel Information and Authorization System), the advance travel permit that non-EU visitors will eventually need to purchase online before flying.

The system officially launched across external Schengen border points following its progressive rollout, but enforcement across member states has been uneven.

While some major hubs have biometrics operational, border controls at other key hubs across Europe have routinely gotten bottlenecked.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that first-time biometric registration takes time. Even adding two to three minutes per passenger has translated into multi-hour queues during peak travel windows, prompting tourism groups to warn of systemic risk to European arrival volumes.

To keep transport lines moving, French border authorities and several European airport hubs have periodically had to suspend the EES altogether during peak holiday surges, reverting back to standard manual checks.

Airlines including easyJet have issued formal alerts regarding outbound EES queues. Travelers leaving the Schengen zone are facing long exit lines at passport control, with carriers warning that gates will not hold for passengers delayed in government processing.